Dear Friend,
April is always a busy month for both NLCF, as well as the Virginia Tech community. As for NLCF-related events, we started off the month with a Lip Sync Battle to raise awareness and funds for 209 Manna Ministries. For those not familiar with these types of events, different groups of students banded together (pun intended) to produce a lip-syncing performance to a variety of current pop songs. Even our staff team did a performance! The night raised $400 for the on-campus food pantry serving Virginia Tech students, which NLCF matched for a total of $800.
That following Sunday we hosted a pancake lunch for the freshman class to celebrate the close of their first year, as well as to challenge them to step up next year. There were over 30 students and staff at the event, making for a promising sophomore class! Also during April, I planned and hosted the third Life After College workshop, completing the three part series of informational and reflective workshops designed to prepare our graduates for the “real world”. This particular workshop had 11 seniors and 4 guests in attendance, and we had several different speakers talk about how to live out our faith and share the Gospel in an often secular workplace.
Later in the month, we hosted a Women’s Dinner, in cooperation with our New Life community congregation, as well as a Guy’s Hangout night. Both events were designed to strengthen the communal and relational bonds between people of the same gender. The goal of the guy’s night was to have a low-key social environment for the men of NLCF to invite their friends. The night included hot dogs roasted over a campfire and a variety of yard games. As we’ve noticed a lack of male involvement and leadership, I petition your prayers for more guys to step up, get involved, and start leading.
Like I mentioned earlier, there were also many campus-wide events this month for the Virginia Tech community. In order to maximize our missional impact, we encouraged everyone to participate in these events as well, broadening our reach. Such events included the 3.2 for 32 run in remembrance of April 16, 2007, the Big Event (large service-day for over 8,000 students and community members), and Relay for Life (Virginia Tech has the largest collegiate Relay in the country).
We closed out the month last weekend with another Learning Community (LC). The purpose of these times is to gather our Engage Group leaders together for a Friday night and Saturday of encouragement, teaching, equipping, and challenge. Friday night, over 50 leaders gathered to cast a vision for being inviting, multiplying engage groups, and living missionally. Saturday, we had around 40 leaders come together for a day of brainstorming, planning, and goal setting for staying connected with community over the summer.
The semester has gone by so fast, and there is only a week or so left before students part ways for the summer. Thankfully our God doesn’t work in a semester schedule; He’s always wanting to speak in power!
In Christ,
David
PS- In case you have missed any of my prayer letters, check out this link for a collection of every one I’ve sent!
David McCann 